Cardi B’s career is on fire, but her ex-manager is bringing the legal heat with an explosive $10 million lawsuit.
As reported, Klenord “Shaft” Raphael is suing his former client for unfair dismissal, defamation, and more after being let go earlier this year. He asserts that the femcee’s fiancé Offset succeeded in his goal to oust him from Cardi’s collective in a bid to control her career himself.
Now, with the drama in public domain, legal reps for the star have released a statement.
Their words below…
“After a full investigation of the facts, we will be responding to these allegations in detail in court. But even on its face, Shaft’s claim raises a huge question. For a hefty commission, a manager promises to carefully counsel and guide an artist in her or his career. In exchange, the law imposes a high fiduciary duty on the manager to always act in the artist’s best interest, not engage in conflicts of interest, not overreach, and not self-deal.
The glaring question here is: how does Shaft justify signing on as Cardi B’s manager through WorldStar for a 20 percent commission, and then a year later sign her up through his other company for a deal that takes 50 percent of her music royalties from Atlantic Records, 50 percent of her music copyrights, and 25 percent of her other earnings?
How does that comport with his fiduciary duty as her manager?”
Echoing earlier sentiments, this looks like it’s about to get messy.